Neurologist calls for rules as AI reshapes learning

Artificial intelligence is having a particularly strong impact on young brains, Christian Enzinger, head of the Graz University Clinic for Neurology, said in an interview with ORF Steiermark.

Speaking to editor-in-chief Wolfgang Schaller in the broadcaster’s Saturday interview, Enzinger was asked whether schools were relying too heavily on digital learning and too little on analogue methods following Austria’s latest weaker PISA results.

“We are experiencing an explosion of knowledge,” Enzinger said. Information was available everywhere, meaning the role of teachers would have to change from passing on knowledge to helping students assess it critically, verify sources and place it in context.

The human brain was particularly strong in judgement and comparative learning, he said. It worked like a city planner, connecting existing knowledge with new information and building bridges between them. By contrast, people who acquired only fast, isolated pieces of knowledge were “putting beautiful houses everywhere” without connecting them, Enzinger said.

Rules instead of bans

Austria is discussing a possible social media ban for children under 14. From a neurological perspective, Enzinger said, bans were problematic and often ineffective because the brain could adopt a defensive response.

“It is better to set rules. The brain can deal very well with rules,” he said.

Enzinger said the average person scrolled up to 90 metres on a smartphone each day, roughly the height of the Statue of Liberty or the length of a football field. This represented a major loss of energy, he said.

“Attention is, in truth, I would say, the most important resource of the 21st century. And yet we give it away to the platform industry every day,” Enzinger said.